Friday 1 June 2012

story time

We got back from the trains from Barcelona at 11pm and then stayed up till 2 watching the Eastenders omnibus which was on for some strange reason on a Saturday morning. Sometimes I do think my life is just in my head, why should an hour and a half of Eastenders be on just when I couldn't sleep.


The Cruise was an experience.

We went with Gre*t Railw*y Journeys - and they weren't;  first class, but cramped and long, with no luxuries. Our Tour "manager" was fun, she had no sense of direction, organisation or basically - brains. But she was very sweet. There were 16 Brits in the party, quite an experience in itself, and they named her Walter Mitty. She certainly believed she knew all these foreign languages, but didn't, and any situation was met with confidence collapsing into confusion, but she was very  friendly.


 Chewing gum mosaic in Livorno [presumably tourists visiting Juliet balcony- wasn't she fictional?]
The ship was huge, mostly Americans. We didn't dress up and eat with the Brits each night, or anyone else, as there were many restaurants and we just went to the relaxed one. Several different menus available each nigh served by very smiley crew, easy to put on weight. Two swimming pools, hot tubs, library, and the blessed relief of a cabin with a balcony so we could sit out in the sunshine and marvel at the blueness of the waters.

Rained in Dubrovnik, who thought we would ever go to Croatia, Venice was as gorgeous as ever, Greek island variable [500steps up a cliff on a mule on Santorini was a highlight -came down on cable car, can't make up my mind which was more frightening] mount Etna was -interesting, mostly black cinders and Pompeii was as ever.

Read so many books and went to the movies once on the boat [My w/e with Marilyn] spent evenings watching films on TV, much like home really. Only Fox news, CNN or BBC world news [which isn't].

Thought I would never sleep with noisy air-con and waves and engine………….but after initial hysterics and Kwells I settled down.

Quite a lark really, very tiring [poor old girl] and now I am home and hit the Jubilee, oh dear.